Mexico Bullfighting Protest; Activists Strip, Cover Themselves In Fake Blood

A Mexico bullfighting protest took a macabre turn on Sunday, when animal rights activists in Mexico City stripped down to their calzoncillos and covered themselves in fake blood to call attention to the cruel nature of bull fighting. Led by the Organization AnimaNaturalis, protesters lay on the ground and painted themselves with fake blood to imitate the injuries sustained by bulls during bullfighting. As they prostrated themselves, other protesters chanted anti-bullfighting slogans. The Mexico bullfighting protest drew hundreds of animal rights activists, as well as thousands of curious onlookers.

Protesters also used the violent backdrop of Mexico's drug war, which has killed more than 60,000 people, as a parallel to the violence being inflicted upon bulls during the bloodsport.

"Mexico is a country marked by violence," founder of AnimaNaturalis Laura Esquivel said, according to EFE. "Making a spectacle out of it undermines our progress toward a culture of peace and respect for other forms of life."

Sunday's bullfighting protest was the largest ever organized inside Mexico, one of only three Latin American countries that still allow bullfighting. Colombia and Venezuela also allow the practice. About 9,000 bulls are slaughtered every year at rings in Mexico, where bullfighting dates back to the 16th century.

Frias organized the protest "with the goal of drawing the attention of the political sectors and media to the need to abolish these cruel and bloody spectacles in which an animal is tortured to death."